THE BACK PAGE 



"The Back Page" is an update 

 on Sea Grant activities — on 

 research, marine education and 

 advisory services. It's also a good 

 place to find out about meetings, 

 workshops and new publications . 

 For more information on any of 

 the projects described , contact the 

 Sea Grant offices in Raleigh 

 (919/737-2454). 



Students in a design 

 class at NCSU have 

 spent the summer grap- 

 pling with a tough 

 problem: How do you 

 convince picky eaters to 

 try unusual seafoods? 

 In a summer studio class conducted 

 by associate professor Austin Lowery, 

 the students have designed logos, ad- 

 vertisements, posters and even T- 

 shirts as part of a "campaign" to 

 promote five under-used North 

 Carolina seafoods — shark, squid, eel, 

 skate and ray. 



The project, which was organized by 

 Lowery and Neil Caudle, Sea Grant's 

 director of communications, gives the 

 students practice solving some prac- 

 tical design problems. One goal of their 

 work is to convince their fellow stu- 

 dents to try, say, skate Creole or 

 smoked eel. The materials will also be 

 useful in some of Sea Grant's educa- 

 tion programs. 



The students have had help with 

 their research. Two Sea Grant seafood 

 experts, Joyce Taylor and Sam 

 Thomas of the NCSU Seafood 

 Laboratory in Morehead City, sup- 

 plied the class with facts about seafood 

 nutrition, preparation and marketing. 

 The- students even had a chance to 

 sample their subject matter. Lundie 

 Spence, Sea Grant's education 

 specialist, helped them prepare shark- 

 kabobs and fried squid. Their reac- 

 tion? "Delicious!" 



Want to try some unusual seafoods 

 for yourself? Plan to be in Beaufort 

 August 19 for the sixth annual Strange 



Seafood Exhibition, held by the 

 Hampton Mariners Museum. 



This year, the exhibition will be held 

 for three hours, from 1 to 4 p.m., at the 

 museum's Heritage Boatshop on Tur- 

 ner Street, says Judith Spitsbergen, 

 education coordinator for the museum. 

 A $2 admission fee will be charged to 

 cover the cost of the seafood. 



Spitsbergen says 60 to 70 volunteers 

 from Carteret County and beyond will 

 be cooking and serving 40 different 

 dishes, including stingray casserole, 

 herring roe and eggs, eel salad, fried 

 squid and marinated octopus. Sea 

 Grant staff at the NCSU Seafood 

 Laboratory in Morehead City will be 

 smoking fish or eel for the exhibition, 

 says Sam Thomas of the lab. The plans 

 also call for demonstrations on how to 

 clean and prepare seafood for cooking. 



All of the recipes used to cook the 

 dishes will be included in the Strange 

 Seafood Cookbook, which will be 

 available at the exhibition for $5 a 

 copy. 



Last year, 1200 to 1500 people at- 

 tended the event and Spitsbergen says 

 more are expected this year. After a 

 national television spot featured the 

 exhibition, calls poured into the 

 museum for a schedule of this year's 

 events. 



Emptying sewage 

 may not be top priority 

 in every boatowner's 

 mind, but someone has 

 to do the dirty work. To 

 make that job easier, Sea 

 Grant has just published 

 a new Blueprint. 



A Portable Transfer Tank for 

 Boat Waste is designed for owners of 

 boats with holding tanks. Although 

 Coast Guard regulations require 

 pumpout of this waste, very few 

 marinas have the expensive commer- 

 cial systems that can do the job. This 

 Blueprint describes a low-cost alter- 

 native that can be put together in an 

 afternoon for less than $250. 



Written by Spencer Rogers, Sea 

 Grant's coastal engineering specialist, 

 this illustrated leaflet gives a list of 



materials and step-by-step instruc- 

 tions for constructing the transfer 

 tank. Rogers is also the author of 

 another Blueprint. The $10 Holding 

 Tank (UNC-SG-BP-80-1). 



To obtain a free copy of A Portable 

 Transfer Tank for Boat Waste, 

 write Sea Grant. Ask for publication 

 number UNC-SG-BP-82-1. 



Every coastal dune 

 needs roots to survive. 

 Dune vegetation not 

 only stabilizes the sur- 

 face, it also traps new 

 sand and puts erosion on 

 hold. To build or repair 

 dunes on coastal property, owners 

 need only basic gardening tools and a 

 little time for planting and main- 

 tenance. 



Sea Grant's new publication, 

 Building and Stabilizing Coastal 

 Dunes with Vegetation, provides 

 guidelines for property owners in- 

 terested in this natural erosion-control 

 method. Specific information is given 

 on the five dune grasses suitable for 

 transplanting along the North 

 Carolina coastline — American 

 beachgrass, bitter panicum, 

 saltmeadow cordgrass, sea oats and 

 seashore elder — from dates and 

 methods for planting to disease 

 resistance. Tips on fertilization, 

 transplanting, maintenance and choos- 

 ing the right grass for the site are also 

 included. 



Building and Stabilizing Coastal 

 Dunes with Vegetation is written by 

 S.W. Broome and W.W. Woodhouse, 

 Jr. of the Department of Soil Science 

 and E.D. Seneca of the Department of 

 Botany at North Carolina State Uni- 

 versity. This publication is the result 

 of research supported by the UNC Sea 

 Grant College Program, North 

 Carolina Agricultural Research Ser- 

 vice and the U.S. Army Corps of 

 Engineers. Broome, Woodhouse and 

 Seneca are also authors of another Sea 

 Grant publication on erosion control 

 called Planting Marsh Grasses for 

 Erosion Control. 



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